Ticats stadium business case focuses on location

Hamilton Tiger-Cats
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Ticats purr over soccer models

BMO Field and Philly's PPL Park strike right chord with CFL club
May 22, 2010
John Kernaghan
The Hamilton Spectator
(May 22, 2010)

When facilitator Michael Fenn sits down with city staff and personnel from the Hamilton Tiger-Cats next week, the football club will have a simple mantra of location, location, location.

The Ticats have drawn on business advisers and a Canadian Football League consultant to marshal their case for something other than a stadium at the west harbour.

While no site has been specified, the 36-page business case the club presented to the city holds out a model based on the financial structure of Toronto's BMO Field and the look and siting of PPL Park, another soccer stadium just outside of Philadelphia.

.....click link to read whole article......

http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/773808
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According an entry in wikipedia, here is the rationale for constructing PPL Park in Chester, Pa.:

“The stadium is built on Chester’s waterfront along the Delaware River at Commodore Barry Bridge’s southwestern corner. PPL Park was designed to be a catalyst for economic development on the waterfront with additional plans calling for a river walk amidst other entertainment, retail and residential projects.?

The city of Chester, Pa. apparently has the same goals as the City of Hamilton in attempting to spur economic development at its urban waterfront.

And this seems to be breakdown of the $120 Million construction cost for PPL stadium itself:

25 Million- Commonwealth of Pennsylvania 30 Million- Delaware County Sports Authority, through taxes at Harrah’s Chester Casino
$ 65 Million- Private Investment
$120 Million- Total

The City of Philadelphia is not making any financial contributions to this project in Chester Pa. Similarly, the City of Hamilton should not be expected to make any financial contributions to pay for any studies or construction of a stadium in Aldershot. It would therefore make sense to take the Aldershot stadium option off the table at the upcoming talks between the City of Hamilton and the Ticats.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PPL_Park
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Actually that model would suggest the city contributes nothing to any site.

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Correct, AKT. If a stadium was to be constructed in Aldershot (i.e. Burlington), the equivalent contributor to Delaware County would be the Regional Municipality of Halton. Of course, the post-amalgamation City of Hamilton is, in effect, the former Regional Municipality of Hamilton-Wentworth.

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[url=http://delcoheronsnest.blogspot.com/2007/10/sports-authority-that-would-be-us.html]http://delcoheronsnest.blogspot.com/200 ... be-us.html[/url]

So what’s the problem? The new entity, the Delaware County Sports Authority, would own the stadium and the land, keeping a close eye on the county’s money, which will not, by the way, include any tax dollars.

No tax money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Every site would go without city money following that model. Flamborough Downs would foot the bill under that model

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The City has not done a very good job in selling the public on the new West Harbour development. If you look at the Ottawa Lansdowne project there are 4 different designs and its all about the area and not the stadium. The stadium is one small piece of the development - they have ideas like an inlet off of the canal where boaters can sail into the stadium park area, playing fields, restaurants, a Farmer Market, boutiques, an Art Gallery - its a real “People Place” the city has worked with the developers to come up with a Stadium design that takes in the surrounding area and will convince the locals that it’s a place for everyone and not just football fans.

I don’t see any ideas at all in the Hamilton project.
If it’s just about a stadium to be used a few times a year for football and maybe soccer. So if that’s the emphasis then build it out in Aldershot area close to the Go and the 407/403/QEW area!!

All I see is “we have money for a stadium so lets build a stadium and stick it somewhere” not a good selling job by the city . They need to convince the anti-football crowd that its not just about football:

Here are the designs for the Ottawa site, they’ve done a great job, the developers and potential football owners working with the city designers:

[url=http://www.ottawa.ca/residents/public_consult/lansdowne_partnership/urban_park/proposed_designs/index_en.html]http://www.ottawa.ca/residents/public_c ... ex_en.html[/url]
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Looking at those designs Ottawa doesn’t need the stadium/arena project to make it fly either. Beautiful stuff with or without Landsdown Stadium much like the west harbour plan presented this week

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AKT wrote:

http://delcoheronsnest.blogspot.com/200 ... be-us.html

So what’s the problem? The new entity, the Delaware County Sports Authority, would own the stadium and the land, keeping a close eye on the county’s money, which will not, by the way, include any tax dollars.

No tax money!!! Every site would go without city money following that model


The problem is that the Hamilton Tiger-Cats apparently expect the City of Hamilton to contribute $45 Million to the construction of a stadium that could end up being located in Aldershot and they want Hamilton to pay half the cost of a study of that option. Given the time constraints in trying achieve a resolution on the stadium location issue by July 8th, the City of Hamilton would be wasting its time in considering the Aldershot option at the upcoming talks. They should focus on the West Harbour, Chedoke and Confederation Park sites during their talks.

The Ticats currently want a similar stadium funding/management arrangement similar to what exists at BMO Field. Maybe stadium funding/management arrangement at PPL Park, which includes a large private investment component, will also be discussed at the upcoming talks.

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mikem wrote:

          " don't see any ideas at all in the Hamilton project.

If it's just about a stadium to be used a few times a year for football and maybe soccer. So if that's the emphasis then build it out in Aldershot area close to the Go and the 407/403/QEW area!!"

mikem:
Read the City report from February 2009:

[url=http://www.hamilton.ca/NR/rdonlyres/043C0F26-B39C-417E-B10B-BB2DD290FF0D/0/Feb23CM09006BusinessCaseStadiumFeb1709FINAL.pdf]http://www.hamilton.ca/NR/rdonlyres/043 ... 9FINAL.pdf[/url]

It is quite detailed about who would use the Pan-Am stadium after the games. They cite 200 events that the stadium would be eligible to host ranging from local to international....in addition to the Tiger-Cats and a soccer franchise.
But I agree they have not made a big enough deal out of it.

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I don’t think that anyone including Bob Young expects the city of Hamilton to contribute a nickel to a stadium outside of Hamilton. I have not seen even a hint of that anywhere. I have no idea where you are getting this misguided impression from. If the stadium issue cannot be resolved in Hamilton the stadium will be built in another city under a new funding formula. Nobody has suggested otherwise

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In this May 7/10 article in The Hamilton Spectator, Mr. Young has proposed an option of building the Pan Am stadium on "the Hamilton side of Aldershot". The Spectator article notes that the proposed Aldershot stadium location is in Burlington.

Therefore, it could be implied from the article that Mr. Young either did not know that the Aldershot stadium location is in Burlington and/or that he is expecting the City of Hamilton to contribute the construction of a stadium there in that location.

http://www.thespec.com/article/764805
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Well, if the team name is still "Hamilton" then the fact the team is existing and getting national exposure is selling Hamilton in the media where many people read, watch and listen so yes, Hamilton should contribute to the stadium even if it isn't in the city defined limits of Hamilton. Also remember the New England Patriots used to be called the Boston Patriots and the team obviously hasn't suffered, so this could happen here as well I think. The name "New England" helps sell the team more regionally than Boston and I think the stadium isn't in Boston proper either. It works.

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I do admit that bob threw up Aldershot as a good location

I don't know what he was thinking

but when the media throws a bunch of "what-if" ideas at bob

imo, he free associates ideas around them to make a point
of what the important things to make a good business case

regarding the location of a stadium for any sports team
and for the essential retail complex that will be allied with it.

HfxTC said he does that to light a fire under Mayor Fred's arse. :lol:

IMO, there is little possibility he will move the team out of Hamilton.

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Thats an assumption on your point. Nowhere does it state that Hamilton is expected to pay for a Burlington site, only that it is a site worth considering

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And you are assuming that this possibility is not on the table.

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No, I'm not assuming anything. Bob Young could actually be that stupid. I have seen nothing to make me think that but it could be true. It could also be true that Hamilton is getting an NHL franchise this fall

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The City is in some danger of losing the Pan AM Games stadium.

I am glad to see that bob has been deliberately
bringing forward his concerns to the public.

and now the Tiger Cats have presented their 36-page business case
for something other than a stadium at the west harbour to the city

put together by their business advisers and a CFL consultant.

While no site has been specified, the business case holds out
a model based on the financial structure of Toronto's BMO Field

and the look and siting of PPL Park, another
soccer stadium just outside of Philadelphia.

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The Tiger Cats like the BMO Field business model.

The City of Toronto contributed $9.8 million

towards the $62 million dollar construction costs of BMO Field
and the land valued at $10 million dollars to construct it on

and they received the ownership of the stadium.

Then that took the worry out of having to operate
the stadium without losing taxpayer's money by

turning the management of the stadium over
to Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd.

Then, they earned $10 million dollars by selling
Maple Leaf Sports the stadium's naming rights.

MLSE signed up their soccer club, Toronto FC,
as the primary tenant for the stadium.

then, resold the naming rights, signing them over
to the Bank of Montreal for $27 Million over 10 years.

Having naming rights to sell sure made it simple
for MLSE and the Toronto FC to start getting

revenues coming in even before they played a game.

The Tiger Cats have been pouring tons of money
marketing the team to potential sponsors for years

and, imo, they still earn half of that from sponsors.

Toronto FC and MLSE have all that money coming in
year after year by simply selling those naming rights.

If a CFL teams can sell naming right to their stadium
it can make an important difference to their bottom line.

P.S.

The Federal Government contributed $27 million,

with Ontario adding an additional $8 million.

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That whole naming rights things has been over-simplified by Young. The reason The Bank of Montreal (that's really who they are) was willing to pay an incredibly inflated price for the naming righs to a meaningless stadium was the opportunities at Air Canada Centre they got in return. What is Bob Young going to offer in exchange for the naming rights ? Free online publishing deals through Lulu ?

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Yes I read that but it’s one of those motherhood statement “the city sees over 250 community events that could be staged…” at the stadium. They are talking about an “athletics” centre of excellence - a lot of running events at the track.

My point is that the city only mentions the stadium, the velodrome and the pool and the benefits the stadium will bring - they don’t mention anything about the development of the surrounding area. There is no vision and no plan like the Ottawa design.

In Ottawa they realized that there was going to be a lot of non-sports fans and local councillors that were just waiting to shoot down tax payer support for a football stadium in the downtown area. They’ve done a great job in selling the development of the “Park” and the benefits to the locals - they barely mention the stadium even though the stadium is going to be the main part of the development. The Shenkman group and the 67’s owner Jeff Hunt are only developing the area if they get a CFL team. None of this happens if they don’t get a stadium or a CFL team.
But they’ve done a fantastic job to sell the Park - the Developers/potential football owners and the city have worked together.
I don’t see the same vision in Hamilton - it’s all been about getting funding for a stadium and then trying to put it somewhere.